Cut the budget

Write your Senator! 
       

Sen XXX, thank you for your recent reply concerning The VA. I do know you are a staunch advocate for Veterans from the many Veterans issues we have worked on over the years. That's why I'm ready to tell you it's time to cut the VA budget. 

That's right, CUT the VA budget.

I used to write you and ask for more funding to solve VA problems. Back in 1996 I wrote you about The VA having one kidney stone Lithotripsy machine for 8 states; you made more funding happen. The VA has since made many physical plant building upgrades and our facilities are much improved. The problems at The VA now is the management, or better defined; mis-management or lack of competent management.   

The most recent attempt of the "Veterans Choice" program was an utter disaster of failure; Failure to help Veterans get healthcare at any doctor. I requested an outside Doctors appointment, a Dr with chemical exposure medical conditions experience for evaluation of my USMC service working in a haz-mat zone and was denied. The VA did not want me to talk with a Dr that would find in favor of the Veteran.

The Veterans Choice was a good concept but the VA mis-managed and actually hurt Veterans by delayed healthcare and wasted funds. Cut the VA "administration" budget and put those funds into Veterans private doctor programs that can go to any doctor that accepts medicare; that will help Veterans. "Privatize" is not the answer; helping Veterans is the answer. 

When the VA management is not capable of making decisions and policies that help our Veterans, giving them more money just encourages VA management to make even more wasteful policies. And that's in the VHA where the medical staff does a fairly good job but is still handicapped by management policy denial for treatment and benefits based on political decisions like Agent Orange and Camp LeJeune presumption. 

Giving The VA more funding now is like giving a drug addict more drugs to get them better; That is wishful thinking that's not going to happen.

The VBA needs to cut their staff. The VBA is not giving the Veterans the disability benefits they are due, so why are we paying for thousands of staff to fight and obstruct Veterans seeking benefits. There are ratings "officers"/ clerks that are not studied in law or medicine yet make denials on Veterans benefits claims. The VBA senior management ignores objective scientific research on presumptive conditions, then makes subjective political decisions denying Veterans benefits and fights Veterans every step/inch of the way.

There are many good, dedicated  VA employees, but the majority administration are civilian, under-educated/ un-qualified workers that are unemployable in private enterprise/ sector jobs and are wasting precious tax dollars in do nothing make work jobs, attending constant committee meetings that have no management purpose, objective, or possibility of solving any policy that would actually help Veterans.  

I have sat in VA committee meetings where the department staff asked volunteers to help define the purpose of their department and what job descriptions should include. Let me be clear, VA staff who have good paying jobs, are asking volunteer committee members what their job should be; a total waste of time and resources. You need to cut The VA budget.

Senator XXX, we've tried to fix VA for years; It's not going to fix. The mismanagement is just going to get worse.  As long as there is no accountability at VA they will squander any funds appropriated to them.

My VA healthcare experience for over 2 decades qualifies me to give you a 1st hand direct contact report of the mismanagement and failed care of Veterans by the VA medical staff doctors following instructions of ignoring objective science research, then making subjective political policy medical decisions not in favor of the Veterans that actually fight and obstruct Veterans benefits.

My experience at VA, along with a management degree from UofA somewhat qualifies me to make this objective observation: giving the VA more funding now will not solve one VA problem; it will only waste money by giving it to incompetent management to to make more/ worse bad decisions.

Sen XXX, I've been an advocate for our Veterans for a lifetime and will continue to work with you to improve the care and benefits of ALL of our Veterans but it's time to cut the VA "administration" budget and let Veterans go to any private doctor they choose. 

Thank you. Sincerely 

XXX

also, this is too important not to mention here. The VA claims evidence intake centers are all now in republican leadership districts. I know legislators want to bring jobs to their district; I get that. But the VA has so many dysfunctional problems that this has the look of the leadership/ownership of the problem(of VA mismanagement). If the VA was working good that would be to your credit; a good feather in your cap. However, as you know, The VA is a horror story in the media and voters judge this. The VA favorable ratings are dismal. The only worst favorable rating is the IRS, and Congress. Prison has a more favorable rating than The VA. You might mention this when you caucus.

The evidence intake center was in Sen Isakksons state (R-GA Armed Forces Committee). 

via the United States Postal Service (P.O. Box 4444, Newnan, GA 30271-0020). The Evidence Intake Center

When submitting claims:
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Claims Intake Center
PO Box 5235
Newnan, GA 30271-0020

 Sen Isakkson is running again and the VA claims addr changed to;

*** from http://www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/mailingaddresses.asp 

Mail to:
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
CLAIMS INTAKE CENTER
PO BOX 4444
JANESVILLE, WI 53547-4444

The new House Speaker Ryans state of Wisconsin.

**** 

Another confusing address for Wisconsin.

from VA.gov site http://www.benefits.va.gov/PENSION/resources-contact.asp#mil

Milwaukee VA Pension Center

PO Box 342000
Milwaukee WI 53234-9907

Service Area: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin

******

And the Camp LeJeune Contaminated Water claims were sent to a single location in Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader McConnells state (and 90% of the claims are denied). 90% of anything sound fishy. Not a bell curve.

The Louisville RO has established a separate PO Box for all corresponding mail. Send all mail that needs to be associated with a Camp Lejeune claims folder to the following address (This PO Box address is also provided to claimants in the attached notification of transfer letter):

Department of Veterans Affairs

Louisville Regional Office

ATTN: CLCW Team

PO Box 2648

Louisville, KY 40201-2648

Very confusing.

?Who is in charge of making these decisions of how the VA operates in a state? And how do you explain such bad service? ie... an appeals claim backlog of epic proportion (over 500,000) and Camp LeJeune denials at 90%? ?Who's making the decisions here? This doesn't look good for Veterans and it doesn't look good for the leadership making the decisions. It looks like they own the VA problem and are in part responsible for the poor unacceptable performance. You might want to bring this up with the other Senators in caucus. Thank you for listening. 

It dont cost nuthin'

reprint: Too good of a lesson not to reprint

Here's a reprint of an article I wrote for another publication several years ago. 

At a Touchdown Club meeting many years before his death, Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant told the following story:
"I had just been named the new head coach at Alabama and was off in my old car down in South Alabama recruiting a prospect who was supposed to have been a pretty good player and I was havin' trouble finding the place. Getting hungry I spied an old cinder block building with a small sign out front that simply said "Restaurant."

"I pull up, go in and every head in the place turns to stare at me. Seems I'm the only white fella in the place. But the food smelled good so I skip a table and go up to a cement bar and sit. A big ole man in a tee shirt and cap comes over and says, "What do you need?" I told him I needed lunch and what did they have today? He says, "You probably won't like it here, today we're having chitlins, collared greens and black eyed peas with cornbread. I'll bet you don't even know what chitlins are, do you?" I looked him square in the eye and said, "I'm from Arkansas, I've probably eaten a mile of them. Sounds like I'm in the right place." They all smiled as he left to serve me up a big plate. When he comes back he says, "You ain't from around here then?"

"I explain I'm the new football coach up in Tuscaloosa at the University and I'm here to find whatever that boy's name was and he says, yeah I've heard of him, he's supposed to be pretty good. And he gives me directions to the school so I can meet him and his coach.  As I'm paying up to leave, I remember my manners and leave a tip, not too big to be flashy, but a good one and he told me lunch was on him, but I told him for a lunch that good, I felt I should pay.
The big man asked me if I had a photograph or something he could hang up to show I'd been there. I was so new that I didn't have any yet. It really wasn't that big a thing back then to be asked for, but I took a napkin and wrote his name and address on it and told him I'd get him one and shook his hand and left."

"I met the kid I was lookin' for later that afternoon and I don't remember his name, but do remember I didn't think much of him when I met him. I had wasted a day, or so I thought.
When I got back to Tuscaloosa late that night, I took that napkin from my shirt pocket and put it under my keys so I wouldn't forget it. Back then I was excited that anybody would want a picture of me. The next day we found a picture and I wrote on it, "Thanks for the best lunch I've ever had."

"Now let's go a whole buncha years down the road. Now we have black players at Alabama and I'm back down in that part of the country scouting an offensive lineman we sure needed. Y'all remember, (and I forget the name, but it's not important to the story), well anyway, he's got two friends going to Auburn and he tells me he's got his heart set on Auburn too, so I leave empty handed and go on see some others while I'm down there."

"Two days later, I'm in my office in Tuscaloosa and the phone rings and it's this kid who just turned me down, and he says, "Coach, do you still want me at Alabama?" And I said, "Yes I sure do." And he says OK, he'll come. And I say, "Well son, what changed your mind?" And he said, "When my grandpa found out that I had a chance to play for you and said no, he pitched a fit and told me I wasn't going nowhere but Alabama, and wasn't playing for nobody but you. He thinks a lot of you and has ever since y'all met." Well, I didn't know his granddad from Adam's house cat so I asked him who his granddaddy was and he said, "You probably don't remember him, but you ate in his restaurant your first year at Alabama and you sent him a picture that he's had hung in that place ever since. That picture's his pride and joy and he still tells everybody about the day that Bear Bryant came in and had chitlins with him."

"My grandpa said that when you left there, he never expected you to remember him or to send him that picture, but you kept your word to him and to Grandpa, that's everything. He said you could teach me more than football and I had to play for a man like you, so I guess I'm going to.  "I was floored. But I learned that the lessons my mama taught me were always right. It don't cost nuthin' to be nice. It don't cost nuthin' to do the right thing most of the time, and it costs a lot to lose your good name by breakin' your word to someone."

"When I went back to sign that boy, I looked up his Grandpa and he's still running that place, but it looks a lot better now; and he didn't have chitlins that day, but he had some ribs that woulda made Dreamland proud and I made sure I posed for a lot of pictures; and don't think I didn't leave some new ones for him, too, along with a signed football."

"I made it clear to all my assistants to keep this story and these lessons in mind when they're out on the road. If you remember anything else from me, remember this. It really doesn't cost anything to be nice, and the rewards can be unimaginable."

Well Coach, we haven't forgotten you or the simple lessons you taught not just your players, but everyone who would take the time to listen to you. 

Larry Burton, Panama City Beach, Florida